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Encyclopedia Britannica on CD-ROM

May 31, 2009 by Roy Johnson

the world’s largest print encyclopedia – on one DVD

Just imagine – people used to take out long-term loans to buy the multi-volume printed edition of Encyclopedia Britannica. Now it’s available on CD for the price of a single book. That’s the revolution in digital technology for you — and a lesson in eCommerce. Britannica started in the mid-18th century and went on to become the world’s most famous encyclopaedia. The latest CD version includes all the material from the 32-volume print edition, and there’s more too. They have also added the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and a world atlas packed with statistics and facts.

Encyclopedia Britannica on CD-ROMOther outstanding features are audio and video clips, natural language searching, and a series of topic tours – showing you superb multimedia presentations of chosen topics — from Aviation to Wildlife. There are 100,000 articles and entries on practically everything you could imagine — all of them authoritative, and some written by distinguished scientists and authors, such as Albert Einstein and Robert Louis Stevenson. On top of this impressive library of data, there are 12,000 photos and maps, timelines on science, ecology, medicine, music and literature; plus 125,000 active hyperlinks to resources on the Internet you can trust.

The materials add up to a hefty 2 GB over three CDs, and there are two options for using them. You can install the whole thing onto your hard disk. Alternatively, you can run a partial install, which is much lighter on resources, but requires disk-swapping during use. You can also update the materials – which is a big bonus.

Britannica is designed like a Web site, with a homepage which is always within reach. There are three ways of accessing information. You can Search, or use an A-to-Z feature, or Knowledge Navigator. You can also search once, then click between the results on all three of these interfaces.

It also has a facility that allows you to compare data between nations and create instant reports, graphs and tables for research or homework. As well as bookmarks, you can take notes on a particular item, or collate and lay out your collections in an attractive, publishable format.

The latest 2010 de lux edition is actually three encyclopaedias in one: Encyclopaedia Britannica Library, Britannica Student Library and Britannica Children’s Library. Our parents and grandparents would hardly have believed it. In terms of the sheer volume of information, this really is a stunning bargain.

© Roy Johnson 2005

Encyclopedia Britannica on CD-ROM   Buy the book at Amazon UK

Encyclopedia Britannica on CD-ROM   Buy the book at Amazon US


Encyclopedia Britannica on CD-ROM, updated annualy.


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Filed Under: Dictionaries Tagged With: Encyclopedia Britannica, Reference, Research, Study skills

Fowler’s Modern English Usage

October 29, 2009 by Roy Johnson

reprint of the classic first edition

Fowler’s Modern English Usage was first published in 1926. It was an immediate commercial success, selling 60,000 copies in its first year, and it went on to become the most influential set of guidelines on grammar and the use of the English language of the twentieth century. There were later versions revised by Sir Ernest Gowers in 1965 and Robert Burchfield in 1996, but this is a facsimile of Henry Fowler’s original first edition, with an introduction by the linguist David Crystal that sets it in context.

Fowler's Modern English UsageIt’s reproduced photographically from the original – so the entries are arranged in two columns on the page, which was the style for books of this kind at the time. This presentation strikes me as doubly appropriate, because it captures the old-fashioned nature of the original, and it accurately reflects the slightly pedantic tone of the contents. Fowler is not unlike his great lexicological predecessor Samuel Johnson in issuing his judgements wrapped around with ironic asides, which makes for interesting reading.

David Crystal’s introductory essay explains how the book came to be published, and how Fowler was an important transition figure between the old, traditional proscriptive grammarians and the new more tolerant descriptive schools which were to follow.

Strangely enough, Fowler, whose name has become a metonym for his Dictionary, is often used by prescriptivists as an authority to support their arguments – when the fact is that his work as a whole reflects a flexible, subtle, and relativist attitude to language and the way it is used.

Fowler deals with all the classic problems in English language, such as the which/that dilemma, the split infinitive, and ending sentences with a preposition. He covers issues that are difficult even for native speakers of English (such as the who/whom issue).

The central problem is the question of usage. If enough people say different from does that make it right? Fowler was working in the days before any giant collections of real data were being used as a source of evidence to support linguistic claims. And he was using printed sources, not spoken, which today are regarded as primary.

However, it’s difficult to predict if he is going to be prescriptive or relativist on any single topic. Crystal points out that there are plenty of inconsistencies within the Dictionary. On some issues Fowler accepts widespread common usage; at others he asserts that something is right or wrong based on nothing more than his own opinion.

It should be said that the Dictionary is not merely a listing of words and their definitions, as in the normal sense of the term. It’s a compendium of how terms are used grammatically, the problems they pose, and the cultural baggage that surrounds them. A typical entry which captures both his stern sense of what is right and his ironic attitude in trying to correct it is as follows:

aggravate,   aggravation. 1. The use of these in the sense of annoy, vex, annoyance, vexation, should be left to the uneducated. It is for the most part a feminine or childish colloquialism, but obtrudes occasionally into the newspapers. To aggravate has properly only one meaning—to make (an evil) worse or more serious. The right & the wrong use are shown in:   (right) A premature initiative would be calculated rather to a. than to simplify the situation; (wrong) The reopening of the contest by fresh measures that would a. their opponents is the last thing that is desired in Ministerial circles. It is in the participle (and a very stupid, tiresome, aggravating man he is) that the vulgarism is commonest.

You can probably find copies of the first edition Fowler in the few remaining second hand bookshops – but it’s nice to have this reprint to put it back into general circulation again.

Fowler's Modern English Usage   Buy the book at Amazon UK

Fowler's Modern English Usage   Buy the book at Amazon US

© Roy Johnson 2009


David Crystal (ed) Fowler’s Modern English Usage: The Classic First Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, pp.784, ISBN: 0199535345


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Filed Under: Dictionaries Tagged With: Dictionaries, English language, Grammar, Language, Modern English Usage, Reference

Gallimaufry

July 15, 2009 by Roy Johnson

a hodgepodge of our vanishing vocabulary

Michael Quinion is a word nerd. He’s an expert on obscure terms, word etymologies, and the origins of strange expressions. His last book Port Out, Starboard Home discusses myths and false explanations for the meanings of well known sayings, and he runs an excellent compilation of lexical back-history at World Wide Words. Gallimaufry is his latest collection of notes on ‘disappearing language’ – terms that are vanishing from common usage for a variety of reasons.

GallimaufrySome go because the object they describe no longer exists (liberty-bodice and sixpence) and some are meanings that disappear because the word is now used to describe something quite different (chaperone was in medieval times a sort of cap.) Mercifully, he splits up his offerings into themed chapters – on food and drink, health and medicine, entertainment and leisure, transport and fashion, then family names and communication.

In explaining the meaning of terms such as lamprey-pie, hog’s pudding, and flummery, he takes you into the realms of medieval cooking practices, the relationship of Latin and French to English linguistic development, and the eating habits of kings and commoners as they struggled to add nutrition and flavour to their diet of boiled wheats and gruel.

In no time this leads in its turn to the worlds of medicine, naval history, and eighteenth century nutrition. It’s unlikely that anybody will need to bring many of these terms back into general circulation, but it’s interesting to realise that spalling-poppy, biting assmart, and alexipharmic contain lexical elements which are still alive and well today, even though we have stopped using the herbal remedies to which they refer.

These are not just terms that have disappeared, but also the remote origins of terms which we still use today. For instance, you would never guess that the term slush fund originated in the mass of semi-liquid fat that floated on the top of boiling up unappetising salt pork on board a ship.

This all passes later into a form of social history when Quinion describes the forms of long-forgotten dances such as the cotillion, the quadrille, and the galliard. He then goes on to explain the distinctions between various nineteenth-century vehicles such as the landau, the barouche, the cabriolet, and the handsome.

It’s a gold mine for people who enjoy both arcane knowledge and the strange linguistic depths of the everyday world. For instance, he discusses old forms of measurement (of the rod, perch, and pole variety) and points out that ell, the old way to measure woollen cloth, gets its length (22-23 inches) as well as its name from the fact that this is the approximate distance from the shoulder to the wrist. The Old English term for the arm is ell, which is why in its turn the place where it bends is called the elbow.

Quinion is certainly a scholar. He gives meticulously drawn sources for his definitions and admits doubt or complete ignorance when supporting evidence is not available. He finishes with a selection of terms which are probably on their way out because of technological change: blotting paper, usherette, gramophone, and bus conductor will probably never be required again, even though they are probably still in the active vocabulary of older people today.

OK – you are either interested in old and possibly obscure words or you’re not. This is a cornucopia for those of us who are not ashamed to be counted amongst the lexical anoraks.

© Roy Johnson 2008

Gallimaufry   Buy the book at Amazon UK   Buy the book at Amazon US


Michael Quinion, Gallimaufry, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, pp.288, ISBN: 0199551022


Filed Under: Language use Tagged With: Gallimaufry, Language, Language change, Language use, Reference

Greenspeak: Ireland in her own words

July 17, 2009 by Roy Johnson

Dictionary-cum-encyclopedia of all things Irish

If you parachuted onto the Emerald Isle, would you know what to do with a griffaun, a mether, or a dolmen ? Did you know that carrageen (Irish moss) can be used as food or as an HIV/AIDS preventative? And where would the taxi driver be taking you if he was going to TCD? Greenspeak is an interesting proposition if you’re interested in language, Ireland and its culture, or unusual dictionaries. Its a dictionary-cum-encyclopedia on all matters Irish, and it’s a beautifully illustrated.

Greenspeak: Ireland in her own wordsEntries run from ‘The Abbey Theatre’ and ‘absentee landlord’ to ‘ziggurat’ and the fact that there is no letter ‘Z’ in the Irish alphabet. Did you know that the words yes and no do not occur in the Irish language? Instead, the main verb in the question is repeated – as in ‘Did you see her?’ – to which the reply is ‘I did’ or ‘I did not’. Some of the terms explained are Irish language pure and simple; others are English words which have a particular or coded meaning in the context of Ireland; others are explanations of Irish history and institutions.

All of them are illustrated by examples drawn from genuinely Irish texts. So for instance, the entry for the apparently innocent-looking expression ‘big house’ runs as follows:

big house, Big House 1. Anglo-Irish country house, the principal house of the former landed Ascendency and often surrounded by a famine wall. Many were burned down in the 1920s. They feature in books, which became a literary genre, starting with Maria Edgeworth’s Castle Rackrent (1800). note: use ‘Irish Big House’ not ‘big Irish house’. Equates with standard English ‘manor’ or ‘stately home’. 2. (Ulster) may refer to mental asylum. 3. (US slang) penitentionary. [1823 (Letters from the Irish Highlands) < teach mor ‘big house’] See Baltimore Oriole.

There are over 2,000 entries covering every aspect of Ireland from food to folklore, and poetry to politics. The chronology and etymology of each word is given, and there is an index of people’s names, a glossary of abbreviations and acronyms.

There is understandably a recurrent strain of relations with neighbours ‘across the water’, but plenty of detailed entries on Ireland’s indigenous language, art, music, literature, history, personalities, and geography.

I get the impression of a huge labour of love and scholarship on Paddy Sammon’s part, and anybody with the slightest interest in Ireland or matters Irish is missing a treat if they don’t see this handsomely attractive book.

© Roy Johnson 2002

Greenspeak: Ireland in her own words   Buy the book at Amazon UK

Greenspeak: Ireland in her own words   Buy the book at Amazon US


Paddy Sammon, Greenspeak: Ireland in her own words, Dublin: Town House, 2002, pp.240, ISBN: 1860591442


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Filed Under: Dictionaries Tagged With: Cultural history, Dictionaries, Greenspeak: Ireland in her own words, Irish culture, Irish dictionary, Reference

Guide to Literary Britain and Ireland

June 26, 2009 by Roy Johnson

illustrated encyclopedia of writers and places

Writers in Britain (no less than those in any other part of the world) have often been influenced by the localities in which the have been born and grown up. There are whole mythologies built around the Brontes and Yorkshire, Thomas Hardy and the West Country, Charles Dickens and London. But the influence actually goes further back than that. For instance in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, people from all over Europe flocked to Scotland, inspired by the writing of Walter Scott.

Guide to Literary Britain and Ireland Wordsworth and his friends almost single-handedly created a passion for the English Lake District which continues to this day. People queue up to peep into Dove Cottage, then go back home to houses ten times the size. Jane Austen has her own museum in Bath, because she captured the city so well in her work, even though she only spent a brief period of her short life there. But these are the well known examples. Less well known but just as interesting socially and geographically are the names listed in this encyclopedia of literature and place which explains connections between writers and locations from the smallest villages via towns and cities, to palaces and country seats which are like separate worlds of their own.

The other interesting factor here is that entries take a historical view of places – so that the record stretches well back beyond the recent past. And it also includes writers who were well known in their own day, even though they might not be now.

So, whilst you get pages of information about Shakespeare and Stratford on Avon (for obvious reasons) the entry on my own home city of Manchester includes Elizabeth Gaskell and Anthony Burgess (both fairly well known) but also the less well known Thomas de Quincy, Harrison Ainsworth, Howard Spring, George Gissing, and even Nobel Prize winner Elias Canetti, who lived here for a while.

I was even more interested to read the details of an entry concerning Christopher Isherwood and his connections with the now defunct Marple Hall in Cheshire. His much neglected – and in my opinion his best – novel The Memorial (1932) is set there. He inherited the hall, but gave it away to his brother.

There are all sorts of unexpected informational gems – such as the fact that Nathaniel Hawthorne lived in Southport; Henry James wrote The Spoils of Poynton in Torquay; and Vladimir Nabokov lived in Trinity College, Cambridge. Entries range from Adelstrop and Abingdon to Wormwood Scrubs and Zennor – famous for having expelled D.H.Lawrence during the First World War on suspicion that he was a German spy.

It’s packed with little gems like that, and the nice thing is that although the big names are not neglected, the smaller, the second.rate, and the also-rans are listed too – and this makes it a work of fairly serious reference rather than just a coffee-table guide. And with two indexes, you can look up either authors or places you might plan to visit. It’s the sort of book that reinforces the idea that people from all over the world probably regard Britain as a nation of writers and poets.

© Roy Johnson 2008

Guide to Literary Britain and Ireland   Buy the book at Amazon UK

Guide to Literary Britain and Ireland   Buy the book at Amazon US


Daniel Hahn and Nicholas Robins, The Oxford Guide to Literary Britain and Ireland, Oxford: Oxford University Press, third revised edition 2008, pp.370, ISBN: 0198614608


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Filed Under: 19C Literature, 20C Literature, Literary Studies Tagged With: Biography, Guide to Literary Britain & Ireland, Literary guide, Literary studies, Reference

Heinemann English Dictionary

June 26, 2009 by Roy Johnson

popular dictionary – especially useful for schools

My copy of the Heinemann English Dictionary markets itself as “The most comprehensive school dictionary”, but it has been an invaluable companion for many years. First and foremost, it is small enough to pop into a briefcase or even a large handbag  – useful when you need to check a word in secret to save face!

Heinemann English DictionarySecondly, the layout is clear and easy to use, helpfully stating the relevant part of speech in full, instead of by abbreviations. I particularly like the way phrasal verbs are set out – if you look up the word pull, each of its variations – pull apart, pull down, pull up and so on – is listed on a separate line, making them much easier to locate. Compound words such as water-hole are shown as separate headings, rather than hidden amongst a myriad of other variations on  a word.

On a point which may be minor to some (but not to me) it is worth noting that a sans serif font is used for all the header words. This is proven to make words more accessible to beginner readers. As a teacher of Basic Skills to adults, I also appreciate the fact that common errors are pointed out. For example, the definition of the word principal includes a warning not to confuse it with principle. I have not seen this in other dictionaries.

An easily understood ‘pseudo-phonetic’ guide to pronunciation is provided. For example, euphonious is ‘yoo-foe-nee-us’. But, for me, one of its chief strengths is that it not only gives etymological information wherever possible, and an indication of colloquial usage where this may not be clear from the definition or may be useful to non-native speakers of English (eternity -‘It took an eternity for the doctor to arrive’), but that it also adds little titbits of information on selected words.

For example, just browsing through, I discovered that flannel is thought to be one of the few words which English has acquired from the Welsh. As I live in Chester, near the border with Wales, this little gem has opened a number of unexpectedly interesting conversations on linguistics. Nor would I have known, without the aid of these boxes, that the word assassin actually derives from an Arabic word for someone who eats cannabis!

Another surprising finding was the entry for the suffix -ette, for which Suffragette was the first known example. These little boxes are known as ‘Language Study Boxes’ and were designed specifically with the National Curriculum in mind. But who said children have to have all the fun? Incidentally, these extended entries are also provided for all the main parts of speech, giving useful examples for children (and adults) to learn from.

If I have any criticism at all to make, it is simply that my edition is too old, and so lacking in some of the more recent terms in the world of Information Technology – but, frankly, you can forgive an old friend almost anything …

© Alison Trimble 2001

Heinemann English Dictionary   Buy the book at Amazon UK

Heinemann English Dictionary   Buy the book at Amazon US


Heinemann English Dictionary, London: Heinemann Educational, 5th edition 2001, pp.1248, ISBN: 0435104241


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How to buy books for a penny

February 8, 2013 by Roy Johnson

conrad_nostromo_2find bargains at online bookshops

I’ve bought several books for a penny each in the last couple of weeks at Amazon. Yes – that’s one penny. And they were not tatty old paperbacks, but hardback reference works of 400 pages plus, in tip top condition, plus a couple of classic novels.

There are several factors that create this state of affairs:

  • new books drive down the value of old books
  • book sales are dropping in global terms
  • more people are buying eBooks
  • eCommerce is changing business practices

What type of books for a penny?

There are lots of junk books for a penny available – as you would expect. But there are just as many that have real intrinsic value in the hands of the right person:

  • dictionaries
  • reference books
  • classic novels
  • out of date text books
  • software and IT manuals

A copy of the classic reference book Whitaker’s Almanack for instance contains lots of valuable information, even if it’s a few years out of date.

You can bet that the capital city, the geography, and the principal imports and exports of Tasmania have not changed much in the last two or three years.

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice hasn’t changed at all since it was first published nearly two hundred years ago. So you can safely buy a copy that happens to be fifty years old – especially if it’s a nice hardback edition, printed on good paper.

Say you were a student of mathematics. A textbook explaining algebra, geometry, or calculus can’t really be ‘out of date’ – because the rules and equations in maths are fixed as part of their very nature.

In the world of computer technology, developments are so rapid that both software and hardware are updated every few weeks. A guidance manual to a digital camera, an operating system, or a laptop computer has almost zero value after about twelve months. But it might be useful to you if it matches the age of your equipment.


Why do books for a penny exist?

Theese bargain books are available for two good reasons:

Reason one
The bookseller wants to get rid of books that aren’t selling and are taking up valuable storage space.

This makes room for books that are more popular and will make more money in terms of sales.

Reason two

The bookseller is getting valuable information in return for the sale – your name, postal address, email address, and your reading preferences.

The bookseller can make use of this information in any future marketing campaigns.


Hardback Vs paperback

Check the book descriptions carefully. You might find a hardback edition available for the same price as a paperback. Old paperbacks tend to disintegrate, and a hardback edition will be more durable, even if it is much older

A hardback might also have additional features – such as illustrations, photographs, and maps.


How to interpret descriptions

Here is a typical description from a bookseller’s advert – and on some sites you might get a photograph of the book as well.

Ex-Library Book. Has usual library markings and stamps inside. Has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. The spine may show signs of wear. All orders are dispatched within 1 working day from our UK warehouse. Established in 2004, we are dedicated to recycling unwanted books on behalf of a number of UK charities who benefit from added revenue through the sale of their books plus huge savings in waste disposal. No quibble refund if not completely satisfied.

  • Ex-Library book – That’s OK: libraries often laminate their books, to make them more durable. The book might have tickets and coloured stamp markings inside.
  • Pages and cover inteact – Good. That means it’s in reasonable external condition.
  • Spine wear – That is perfectly normal on an old book.
  • Despatched within one day – Good! Order it in the morning: you might receive it next day.
  • Charity donation – You are helping a charity, and saving a book which would otherwise be pulped.
  • Money-back guarrantee – You can trust them to honour their promise – for reasons discussed below.

If you want to go into further detail, have a look at our guidance notes on bookseller jargon.


Can you trust the seller?

Almost all bookseller want to gain reputations for good service and prompt delivery. Amazon and AbeBooks have ratings systems in place. Customers can award good (or bad) marks to the online bookseller.

Believe me – these booksellers are very, very keen to keep their ratings as high as possible. They know that if they send you shoddy goods that are badly wrapped, they will lose credibility,


Postage

Of course, you’ve got to pay the postage for these books to be delivered to your front door. But with an average charge of £2.50 (or $4.00 – €3.00) ask yourself if it would cost you that much to travel to your nearest big bookshop.

You might have to wait two or three days (in the UK) for the book to arrive – but in some cases if you order early in the morning, it’s possible that the book could arrive next day.

However, some online booksellers have free delivery options.


Examples of books for a penny

I ran a test and came up with the following examples. All were available for one penny.

These are the original book reviews on this site. Click through to Amazon, When you get there, be prepared to do a bit of clicking around.

books for a penny Roget’s Thesaurus [Reference – hardback]

books for a penny Portrait of a Marriage [Biography – hardback]

books for a penny Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable [Reference – hardback]

books for a penny iPhone UK The Missing Manual [Guidance manual – paperback]

books for a penny Style: ten lessons in clarity and grace [Style guide – paperback]

© Roy Johnson 2013


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Filed Under: 19C Literature, 20C Literature, How-to guides, Literary studies Tagged With: Dictionaries, e-Commerce, Reference

How to choose a dictionary

November 1, 2009 by Roy Johnson

from pocket-size to the world’s largest reference

Dictionaries can be something of a personal matter. People become very attached to their favourite amongst the most-used of all reference books. However, a few guidelines on how to choose a dictionary can easily be established. The first thing to understand is that they are not all the same. They have their own characters and peculiarities, and they are created for different users.

How to choose a dictionary - Oxford MinidictionaryLet’s start with the question of size. The smallest dictionaries, which you really can fit into your pocket, are only suitable for a quick check of spelling and meaning in most commonly used words. These are mini-books the size of cigarette packets, which often end up in your desk drawer. The Oxford English Minidictionary manages to pack 40,000 entries and 50,000 definitions into a miraculously small space – and throws in a few extra pages which offer solutions to common problems. Keep this in your briefcase, or take it along to the pub quiz, but for serious work you’ll need something bigger.

 

How to choose a dictionary - The Little Oxford Dictionary The Little Oxford Dictionary is the next size up. This is a more serious attempt to be useful, with 51,000 entries and supplementary information on each word, including how it should be pronounced. It also includes occasional panels of advice on grammar and good usage, plus a supplement of words which have come into the language during the 1990s. This is one for the desktop or your briefcase, and probably the smallest you can go if you are going to consult a dictionary regularly.

 

How to choose a dictionary - Collins Pocket DictionaryCollins offer an alternative to the Oxford domination of the dictionary market. Their books are popular because they generally make clear page layout a priority. The Collins Pocket Dictionary contains 44,500 definitions, plus advice on grammar and common problems. It claims to be ‘in colour’ – but all this turns out to mean is that headwords and their variants are printed in red – which makes the pages look as if they’ve got measles.

 

How to choose a dictionary - Heineman DictionaryAmongst the ‘portables’, the Heinemann English Dictionary is specially designed for use in schools. Not only is each entry very clearly presented, but parts of speech are spelt out in full, not abbreviated as is usual in dictionaries. Pronunciation is explained, and there are pull-out boxes with gems of etymology on certain words. It has been created with the UK National Curriculum in mind – and has proved to be popular as a reference for the classroom.

 

How to choose a dictionary - New Oxford DictionaryThe New Oxford Dictionary focuses on English as it is really used in the late 20th century. Compiled after in-depth analysis of computerized databases of current English, this dictionary is the first to base its coverage on the evidence of real English. A rapid-reference page design separates out parts of speech, word histories, and phrases. The most modern meaning of each word, as used by the majority of people, is placed first within each entry. Contemporary rules are given on question of usage, providing relevant advice on problems old and new. Word history notes explain the linguistic roots of words and tell the story of how a word’s meaning and form have changed over time. Modern pronunciations are also given, using the internationally recognized system.

If you are buying a dictionary for serious use, paperbacks can be a false economy. Very often, hardback editions only cost slightly more – and they will last you a lifetime. Treat yourself!

How to choose a dictionary - Chambers DictionaryIt’s official! The word techie – a devotee of technology – has made it into the Chambers Dictionary. And there are a slew of other net-specific words too, including netiquette, browsing, applet, spam, cybersex and cybercafé. It just goes to show how the world of computing and electronic communications has advanced and changed our world. Of course, there are also those other little things that have become part of our lives: Prozac, sound bite, cellulite…

 

How to choose a dictionary - Collins Millenium DictionaryCollins dictionaries have always scored well on contemporary relevance and accessibility. The latest ‘Millennium’ edition of the Collins English Dictionary has increased the previous content by twenty percent, and there are useful guiding headers at the top of the pages, and the headword entries are printed in a no-nonsense non-serif font which I find unexpectedly easy to read. Besides answering the questions usual to dictionaries there are many encyclopedic entries which make this a valuable work of general reference. It also carries notes on language use which might be studied by those who think they speak English correctly.

 

How to choose a dictionary - Collins Dictionary and ThesaurusCollins also have on offer a ‘two-books-in-one’ Dictionary and Thesaurus. This carries 71,000 entries, plus a quarter of a million synonyms. Normal dictionary entries appear in the top half of each page, whilst the bottom half presents lists of synonyms and antonyms. This is a simple but very effective device which encourages browsing and learning about language. A useful choice if you need to combine two sources of reference in one.

 

How to choose a dictionary - Concise Oxford DictionaryThe most popular of the one-volume desktop dictionaries is the Concise Oxford Dictionary. This contains explanations, pronunciation, and the etymology of over 40,000 headwords. It also adds notes on any disputed or controversial terms, and includes American spellings. This is a great favourite with writers and students, and a basic minimum for a civilized library. If you can only afford one dictionary – make it this one.

 

How to choose a dictionary - EncartaIf you want an illustrated dictionary, Encarta has recently been released as one volume – to some acclaim. It represents both the diversity of English as a language spoken around the world, and an attempt to capture up-to-date usage. If you want a picture of an aardvark and details of zygotes – Encarta has them. It offers variant spellings, meanings, and pronunciations in more than 100,000 entries comprising some 3.5 million words. If, for example, your Asian correspondent asks you for your biodata, you can quickly and painlessly learn that she needs your curriculum vitae. There are more than 3,000 black-and-white illustrations and 10,000 biographical and geographical entries. This is Microsoft making good use of its linguistic database.

 

How to choose a dictionary - New Shorter Oxford DictionaryMoving towards the heavier, more serious resources for writers, students, and teachers who want the sort of books in their homes which are normally only available in libraries, the New Shorter Oxford is a firm favourite. It’s big, comprehensive, and scholarly, and is based on the monumental Oxford English Dictionary. All entries have been re-written to reflect contemporary usage. This is one which should be considered as a minimum for serious writers and researchers. It comes in two handsomely-produced volumes, which are a sound investment. Its also just been re-issued in a Oxford’s new easy-to-read format.

 

How to choose a dictionary - Compact Oxford English DictionaryThe Compact OED [an accurate but amazingly misleading title] is just about as far as you would need to go without being a library acquisitions officer or a professional lexicographer. It’s a two-volume version of the complete OED – but photo-reduced, so that the text is laid out in a font size of about six points. The volumes are issued as a cased set with a magnifying glass – and you’ll need it. But here’s the good news. It works. So you save on storage space, yet have access to the contents of the twenty volume version. I picked one up second hand, and use it all the time.

 

How to choose a dictionary - The Oxford English Dictionary CompleteOf course when we get to the biggest and best dictionary of the English Language, and a towering monument of bibliographic scholarship – then it’s the complete Oxford English Dictionary. This is now twenty printed volumes and had become rather expensive to produce. There are the two options available. You can have the convenience, speed, and reliability of the whole database on a single disk. Keep it in your D: drive and the world’s biggest lexical resource can be summoned with a mouse-click. The alternative is to subscribe to the online version, which will be permanently updated. It’s worth noting that the OED editors have decided to adopt an all-inclusive policy. New English, slang, jargon, and even obscenities are all listed.

© Roy Johnson 2009


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How to cite electronic sources

September 15, 2009 by Roy Johnson

academic conventions for the digital age

Referencing

1. More and more data is now stored electronically in a variety of forms.

2. When quoting, your sources may be in some digital form.

3. The information might be stored in different types of location.

4. Many of these locations are known as Internet ‘sites’ or ‘addresses’.

5. The sources you are most likely to encounter are as follows:

  • FTP site
  • Web site
  • Newsgroup
  • CD-ROM
  • E-mail

Accuracy

1. Details of addresses should be recorded with complete accuracy.

2. All use of capital and lower case letters must be respected.

3. All punctuation must be recorded exactly as given.

4. No punctuation should be added.

5. For instance, don’t put a full stop at the end of an address:

https://mantex.co.uk – not – https://mantex.co.uk.

6. Typographic symbols (#,@,!,~) should be incorporated accurately.

7. You should also include a record of the date the site was visited.

8. Electronic documents may easily be updated at any time.


FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Sites

1. When giving reference to sources located via FTP, you should provide the following information. The electronic ‘address’ of the document is enclosed in angle brackets (which are optional).

  • the author’s name (if known)
  • the full title of the document in quotation marks
  • the date of publication (if available)
  • the abbreviation ftp
  • the address of the ftp site, with no closing punctuation
  • the full path to the paper, with no closing punctuation
  • the date of access in parentheses

Example:

Bruckman, Amy. “Approaches to Managing Deviant Behavior in Virtual
Communities.”

<ftp://ftp.media.mit.edu/pub/asb/papers/deviance-chi-94>
(4 Dec. 1994).


World Wide Web (WWW) Sites

1. To cite files available for viewing or downloading via the World Wide Web by means of Firefox, Internet Explorer, or other Web browsers, you should provide the following information:

  • the author’s name (if known)
  • the full title of the document in quotation marks
  • the title of the complete work if applicable in italics
  • the date of publication or last revision (if available)
  • the full http address (URL) enclosed within angle brackets
  • the date of visit in parentheses

[ HTTP = HyperText Transfer Protocol ]
[ URL = Uniform Resource Locator ]

Example:

Burka, Lauren P. “A Hypertext History of Multi-User Dimensions.”
MUD History. 1993.
<http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/1pb/mud-history.html>
(5 Dec. 1994).


Newsgroup (USENET) messages

1. When citing information posted by participants in newgroup discussions, you should provide the following information:

  • the author’s name (if known)
  • the author’s e-mail address, enclosed in angle brackets
  • the subject line from the posting in quotation marks
  • the date of publication
  • the name of the newsgroup, enclosed in angle brackets
  • the date of access in parentheses

Example:

Slade, Robert. <res@maths.bath.ac.uk> “UNIX Made Easy.”
26 Mar. 1996. <alt.books.reviews> (31 Mar. 1996).


E-mail messages

1. When citing electronic mail correspondence, you should provide the following information:

  • the author’s name
  • the author’s e-mail address, enclosed in angle brackets
  • the subject line from the posting in quotation marks
  • the date of publication
  • the kind of communication
  • the date of access in parentheses

Example:

Franke, Norman. <franke1@llnl.gov> “SoundApp 2.0.2.” 29 Apr. 1996. Personal e-mail. (3 May 1996).


CD-ROM disk

1. When citing information located on a CD-ROM disk, the source is treated as if it were a normal (print) publication, and you should provide the following information:

  • the author’s name (if known)
  • the full title of the document in quotation marks
  • the full title of the CD-ROM
  • the publisher
  • the date of publication (if available)

Example:

Norman Higginbottam, “The Sounds of Muzak”, Beethoven Revisited,
Digital Resources, 1996.


Details gratefully quoted and adapted with permission from Andrew Harnack and Gene Kleppinger, online! a reference guide to using internet sources, St Martin’s Press, 1997.

© Roy Johnson 2004


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How to use Harvard referencing

September 15, 2009 by Roy Johnson

standard system of academic citation and quotation

1. Some subjects adopt the Author-Date method of referencing – which is also known as the Harvard referencing system. Full details of the texts you have quoted are placed in a bibliography at the end of an essay or a report. These details are recorded in the following order:

Author – Date – Title – Place – Publisher

Smith, John. (1988) The Weavers’ Revolt, Chicago, Blackbarrow Press.

2. References in your text give the surname of the author, plus the publication date of the work to which reference is being made. This information is placed in brackets – thus:

Some research findings (James and Smith 1984; Brown 1987) have argued that these theories are not always reliable.

3. When you wish to draw attention to a particular page, this is done by simply adding the page number directly after the date of publication:

The development of these tendencies during the 1960s have been discussed by Brown (1977,234) and others (Smith 1992,180 and Jones 1993,88-90).

4. Note that when the author’s name is given in your text, it should not be repeated in the reference. You should simply give the date, then the page number(s). When you give the author’s name, the reference should either follow it directly, or it may come at some other point in the same sentence:

Smith (1987,166) argues that this was …

Smith, who is more positive on this issue, argues (1987,166) that …

5. If two or more works by the same author have the same publication date, they should be distinguished by adding letters after the date. This can be quite common with articles in journals.

Some commentators (Mansfield 1991b and Cooper 1988c) have argued just the opposite case, that …

6. The list of texts which appears at the end of your essay should be arranged in alphabetical order of the author’s surname. The list differs from a normal bibliography in that the date of publication follows the author’s name:

Mansfield, M.R.1991a. ‘Model Systems of Agriculture in Early Britain’, Local History Journal Vol XX, No 6 ,112-117.

Mansfield, M.R.1991b. ‘Agriculture in Early Britain’, History Today Vol 12, No 3, 29-38.

7. Don’t list works you have not consulted or from which you have not quoted. Doing this creates the impression that you are trying to claim credit for work you have not actually done.

8. You might find that your bibliography repeats much of the information given in your endnotes or footnotes. Don’t worry about this: these two separate lists have different functions. In addition, your bibliography may contain works from which you have not directly quoted.

Bibliography

Beeton, I. 1991 Beeton’s Book of Household Management,
Chancellor Press.

Best, G. 1979 Mid-Victorian Britain 1851-75, Fontana.

Burman, S. 1979 (ed), Fit Work for Women, Croom Helm.

Darwin, E. 1890 ‘Domestic Service’, The Nineteenth Century, Vol.28,
August.

Davidoff, L. 1973 The Best Circles, Croom Helm.

Davidoff, L. 1974 ‘Mastered for Life: Servant and Wife in Victorian
and Edwardian England’, Journal of Social History,
Vol.7.

Davidoff, L. 1987 and Hall, C., Family Fortunes, Hutchinson.

[…and so on]

© Roy Johnson 2004


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